Let's help patients in pain

By

Published on: 12/12/2009

It's time for Wisconsin to join the growing number of states that give their ill and ailing citizens a wider array of health care options.

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act would allow patients and their doctors access to a medicine that has fewer side effects than many addictive, legally prescribed pharmaceuticals on the market that are taken by millions of Americans every day.

It is time we help people like Teresa Shepherd.

Teresa is a 34-year-old mother from West Bend, who looks every bit the fit gymnast who loves biking and martial arts - things she did before she was hit by fibromyalgia, affecting her muscles and causing chronic pain.

Before Teresa was diagnosed seven years ago, she hated to even take aspirin. She now has been prescribed as many as 12 medications at once, which made her feel worse.

"I was dizzy, throwing up, I had no appetite at all and could not eat because of the pain," she said privately after sitting in the audience of a press conference where Sen. Jon Erpenbach and I introduced this bill. "The flare-ups made me feel like I was on fire. I was at the end of my rope."

When a friend suggested marijuana, she was shocked. Desperate, she tried it. It warmed and relaxed her muscles and allowed her to sleep and eat. She is now able to take her dog on a walk to the park with her two boys. The woman who had been prescribed a wheelchair even got back on her sports bike.

"But I'm real nervous," she adds. "I've got kids. If I get caught, I can go to jail. But this allows me to be a wife and a mother in my home."

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act is about patients. It is about medical options. It is about compassion.

The public is ahead of the policy-makers on this issue. Statewide polling has shown a 75.7% approval of medical marijuana. People who have watched loved ones in pain and dying do not view this as a partisan issue.

In November, the historically cautious and conservative American Medical Association shifted its policy in favor of studying marijuana's medicinal uses. President Barack Obama announced a federal hands-off policy toward state laws on medical marijuana. And Gov. Jim Doyle has said he would sign a medical marijuana bill, as long as a doctor's written consent is required.

I'm in California right now, and while I'm here, I will visit a compassion center dispensary and ask questions about what has worked and what can be improved. California was the first state to pass such a law back in 1996 so it has been working through problems. It is important to note that our legislation is markedly different.

We are advocating strong restrictions so it does not offer recreational access to marijuana.

Our bill provides a medical necessity defense to avoid prosecution for someone obtaining or growing a small, regulated amount of marijuana with a doctor's written permission.

Patients must obtain the doctor's recommendation, a license and pay a fee of $250. A compassionate center must pay an annual fee of $5,000 and meet other regulations. Both will be regulated by the state Department of Health Services

This bill has been rewritten, evolved and improved over time as 13 other states now permit access to medical marijuana and another 17 are actively debating it.

Much of our language replicates Michigan's law, which passed with 63% of the vote on a ballot last November. We also took language from Rhode Island that has become the nationwide standard when it comes to nonprofit distribution organizations.

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act is named after a woman suffering from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (a disorder that attacks joints and tissue), who led patients on a 210-mile trek from Mondovi to Madison in her wheelchair.

What Jacki pushed for - then and now - is health care reform. It's a humane approach to helping the sick, and it's time we show compassion and permit this medical option to help people like Jacki and Teresa.

The Senate and Assembly health committees will hold a public hearing on the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Capitol, Room 412 E. We expect to hear from many people whose quality of life could be made better by passage of this bill, and I invite you to join us.